My work with the one-plane swing continues and I’m very pleased with the results. My ball-striking has been steadily improving, especially with my long irons.

There are several parts of my swing that I need to “evolve” to get there fully. I find that it’s been the least painful to concentrate on one certain aspect of the one-plane swing at a time (while keeping the others in the back of my mind) so that I can properly ingrain each part.

Right now, I’m working on keeping my left wrist flat from the start of the swing through impact. That single change has led to the most improvement in my ball striking. If I get to the top of the swing and feel that my wrist has cupped some, I know I’m destined for an inconsistent shot.

I got out for a 9-hole round yesterday and hit 6 out of 7 fairways. Part of that is due to the Callaway FT-i Tour driver that I got. That thing is amazing. Two of those drives were with my 2-iron, though, and one was a 5-iron.

Where I’m struggling is hitting greens in regulation. After hitting 6 fairways, I only hit 1 green, and that was on a par-3. My distance control is suffering. Part of that is due to the fact that it’s still fairly cold and my course gets pretty windy at times. I’ll iron that out in the coming weeks as the weather gets more spring-like.

My experimentation with “The Claw” putting grip is going well. I’m going to cover that in a separate post, probably later this week. On a side note, that grip seems to work well with other clubs, too. I left my putter at home yesterday (sitting next to my Pelz Putting Track). I was forced to improvise on the course. I tried putting with my 2-iron and then with my 3-wood. Those were no good. Eventually, I found that I could get good results with my sand wedge. I just tried to strike the equator of the ball with the leading edge of the club face.

I managed to roll the ball pretty well, taking 17 putts in 9 holes. Not too bad without a putter. I did give myself a couple that would have been putter gimmes. Still, I would have expected my putting to be much worse.

Tweaks

As April approaches, I really want to concentrate on getting my fitness and practice plans set for the season. I’d hoped to have them done already but I was under the weather for most of this week.

I’m also resolved this year to spend much more time on the short game than I did last year. My ball striking and driving were so inconsistent that I couldn’t bring myself to work on other things as much. I know it would have improved my scores, but it wouldn’t be enough. Now, my driving and ball striking can still use a lot of work, but I feel like I’m freed up to concentrate a lot more on the short game.

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